Patrick Stevens' coverage of college sports in D.C./Baltimore/Virginia, just the same as ever

04/25/2010

Terps dreams of top seed fade in loss

The Maryland lacrosse team made a habit of reversing losses this season.

Virginia wasn't about to let it happen again in the ACC tournament final.

Instead, the Cavaliers emphatically shut down the Terrapins 10-6 before 2,626 at Byrd Stadium, effectively dashing Maryland's chances of earning the top seed in the NCAA tournament next month.

"These are the teams you have to beat to be the best, and we get to the NCAA
tournament, I'm sure we're going to see one or two of these teams," attackman Grant Catalino said. "We know
what's on the road ahead of us and we're looking forward to it and we have to
get better."

The first time around, the Terps utilized Will Yeatman to pick apart the Cavaliers defense during a comeback from a six-goal deficit. Yeatman, however, suffered a mild concussion Friday and did not dress for the rematch.

"In the first game we attacked them from behind, but without our guy who was
going to attack them, we had to go out in front and that was the downside," Maryland coach Dave Cottle said. "You
take a shot, it's a save, it's transition. That's the classic case of bad
offense lends itself to bad defense. That's probably we didn't do it the first
time we played them."

With a lot of Adam Ghitelman (16 saves) and a fair amount of self-inflicted struggles, Maryland managed little after bolting to a 3-0 lead.

Rather than have a chance at the No. 1 seed --- the Cavaliers almost certainly will earn that --- the Terps look like a solid choice for the No. 3 slot behind Virginia and (probably) Syracuse. Much of that will depend on how much weight the selection committee places on strength of schedule and RPI, both of which will help Maryland.

"When you have two Virginia, two North Carolinas, the teams that we have,
we're going to be OK there," Cottle said. "We just have to win the next game and start to play
well."

For as well as the Terps had been playing over their last 3 1/2 games --- the comeback against Virginia, and then defeats of Navy, Johns Hopkins and North Carolina --- getting shut down today was a mild surprise.

Cottle, though, was restrained in assessing Maryland's most lopsided loss of the season.

"I'm very happy with who my team is," Cottle said. "They compete and they fight and we came
up on the short end. We'll be better the next time we play."